


Liquido Virtute

by QueenTzahra



Category: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
Genre: Bioluminescence, Drunken Shenanigans, Frottage, Kissing, M/M, Passion, Unspoken things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 14:08:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21254618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenTzahra/pseuds/QueenTzahra
Summary: Marine liquor distillation, introspection and bioluminescence combine together and, in an almost alchemical process, turn unspoken feelings into a night of passion. In other words, utterly shameless self-serving smut.





	Liquido Virtute

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!
> 
> And Happy Thursday too, of course! It's been a while and I'm super excited to finally publish something this year, even if it's in a completely out of left field fandom.
> 
> I've been told for years and years by people I respect that I'd love Jules Verne, but did I listen? Of course not. I guess a few weeks ago the time was right, because I picked up 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and I absolutely adore it. It definitely muscled its way into my list of top ten favorite novels and the scene at Atlantis is in my top ten favorite scenes in all of fiction, up there with Subaru rescuing Kamui from his catatonia in X and Harry walking to face Voldemort in The Deathly Hallows. Gah I'm making myself tear up, someone stop me!
> 
> Anyway, I've gushed enough. (Shout out to all the people who've had to put up with it for weeks!) I got inspired to write a little something to warm up before NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. It's not much and I'm not sure how well it turned out, but I did my best. After all, shameless smut is what I do best. To you, I am Queen Tzahra. To me, you and your companions are passengers on my smut train.
> 
> Enjoy, dear friends!

"Pardon my interruption, Master, but the view outside is rather magnificent, and I would do Master a disservice in allowing him to miss it."

Conseil's words, spoken in his usual calm formality, seemed to hover around me without making any impression. A few hours ago I'd sat down in the lounge and started reviewing and organizing the notes I'd taken after my last seafloor excursion with Captain Nemo, and had no focus for anything else. "Yes, Conseil," I said, distractedly, my brow furrowed over a sketch, with absolutely no idea what he'd said to me.

"If Master will permit me-"

"For goodness sake, look out the blessed window, Professor!" Ned Land's rather more Earthy tone actually penetrated my concentration and I looked up with what evidently was a bemused expression, because the Canadian laughed.

"What?"

"Look out the window!" He repeated, gesturing.

"Indeed," agreed Conseil, extending his hand to help me to my feet. I set aside my notes and, standing up straight and unencumbered by my work, I let out a cry of sheer wonderment. We were submerged as always, though we couldn't be more than a meter deep, and the water around us was saturated with glowing orange sunlight. It was as though a drop of the sun itself had fallen into the water, lighting everything from within and casting the schools of small, darting fish (all of which Conseil was now classifying) into silhouette. I felt, absurdly, that I'd never seen a sunset before, though of course I'd probably just been underwater too long. I expressed these views to my companions, and Ned Land said,

"The things you miss while your Nemo keeps us imprisoned, Professor." He stared out the glass panels with a wistful expression on his face, and I wondered what memory he was hungering after when he obliged us with an explanation. "I used to watch the sunset at every port I stopped in. It was better, because once you've seen one sunset on the open ocean you've seen them all, and I don't like to waste energy."

"And of course, at port there is also ale to be drunk and women for whom to purchase counterfeit pearls," Conseil put in. The Canadian let out a hearty laugh.

"And you could tell me the class of every grain I drank, I suppose?"

"If you wished it." Ned Land rolled his eyes, muttered something under his breath and stared out of the windows again while Conseil did indeed start naming and classifying barley and hops and sugars by region and what they were used for. Ned Land immediately began interjecting with his distaste or preference. "Glutton! Or no, perhaps _sot_?" Conseil teased, to which the Canadian would offer no contradiction, though he did say,

"I do miss a drink." Conseil and I agreed, and their conversation continued, ebbing and flowing like those gilded currents outside the Nautilus. As for me, I didn't join in, but found myself recalling memories like Ned Land's, of languishing in outdoor cafes in coastal towns, of inhaling sea air and pipe smoke over glasses of spirits and raucous conversation. I experienced one of those exceedingly rare moments of nostalgia for my former life as I remembered my last night in New York before boarding the Abraham Lincoln, of the sights, smells and people around me belonging to every classification. However, just as quickly the memory was eclipsed, as so many of them were these days, by thoughts of my last seafloor exploration.

In this case, Atlantis.

Before that great cataclysm which had plunged it below the ocean's waves forever, had its noble citizens enjoyed similar luxuries? My imagination, no doubt spurred on by the glorious gilded evening, showed me the citadel, resurrected and bustling and basking in sunset. I imagined myself there, gazing out over the ocean, in a deep state of contented wonder. I imagined Captain Nemo sitting beside me at his ease, in civilian dress rather than diving costume, also looking outwards, though his gaze was inscrutable as ever. For some reason my heart sped up, and a longing that had nothing to do with my former life, with New York or Atlantis, rose up inside me like the heat of the volcanoes of Santorini, and I asked myself the same question that had been plaguing me for months.

'_For what purpose did Captain Nemo keep showing me these things?_'

During our Atlantis trip, I'll admit I was so stunned and excited to even consider the question, but now, in the aftermath of this remarkable night with this remarkable individual, with all the awe and emotion and imagination it had inspired in me… He kept us all well away from so much, and yet he showed me this. Why?

The door to the lounge opened, breaking me out of my reverie, and Captain Nemo himself appeared on the threshold, his brow furrowed as he stared about the room. My heart sped up inexplicably. "Do you enjoy the view?" Captain Nemo asked, addressing the room though his dark eyes, soft in the twilight, were upon me.

"Very much," I replied, and Conseil and Ned Land agreed.

"If it should please you," the Captain continued. "I'll offer you a drink." Ned Land replied immediately with his usual suspicion.

"That's convenient, we were just talking about that," he said, then asked, sarcastically, "What is it, an infusion of seaweed, Captain?" As always, Captain Nemo was unfazed by the Canadian.

"In a manner of speaking. It is a spirit of distilled sugar kelp from the NOrth Atlantic." My companions spoke over each other.

"Sugar kelp: Saccharina latissima, class Phaeophyceae, family Laminariaceae-"

"Distilled spirit?! How long have you been holding out on us, Captain?!"

Captain Nemo looked at me questioningly, and it was as though I were being stared at through a spyglass, so that my heart continued to beat much faster than the situation warranted. "Distilled… sugar kelp? But Captain Nemo, without yeast to ferment-"

"There was clearly some engineered sea malarkey," interrupted the Canadian sagely, all suspicion apparently gone. His eyes were fixed most greedily upon Captain Nemo, who again ignored him.

"The same effect can be achieved through a different organism, Professor Aronnax," he replied. "But if you're amenable I'll explain it to you over a glass." How could I even think of disagreeing? I'll let the reader imagine my companions' reactions.

* * *

A quarter of an hour later, the four of us sat in the lounge with short glasses of clear liquid in hand and said the version of "cheers!" respective to our nationalities, Captain Nemo a single word in that mysterious language spoken on board the Nautilus. We drank, and it tasted as fine as any spirit I'd had on land, but with that distinct clarity that only the ocean could add to taste. Perhaps because of the strength of the spirit, or equally as likely because I hadn't had any alcohol since coming on board the Nautilus, heat and color rushed up my neck and face and my beating heart no longer confused me as a great contentment settled over the room.

"How does it taste, Professor Aronnax?" Captain Nemo asked me in a low voice.

"It's _excellent_, sir," I replied, a little slowly, and Captain Nemo nodded and took a sip from his own glass.

"Very fine work, Captain!" Proclaimed the Canadian, very red in the face from draining half his glass in one swallow and already looking at the decanter on the table between us as though it were a whale he longed to harpoon.

"Saccharina latissima," said Conseil simply.

"Have as much as you like," said Captain Nemo, unusually gracious, before turning to me and explaining his oceanic distillation process, countering all of my objections in his manner that never failed to perplex and fascinate me. The sun set outside the glass panes, though the panels remained open, and the electric lights overhead caught tiny bursts of phosphorescence dancing in the ocean water. When three quarters of the decanter had been consumed, Ned Land began singing a crude song while Conseil swayed sarcastically back and forth in time to it. Both of them had their eyes closed and color high in their faces. I knew a deep surge of affection for both my companions and smiled broadly at the scene, the muscles of my face languid with spirit. I caught Captain Nemo's eye, and his finely cut mouth mirrored my expression. Agin, however, I noticed that his eyes, dark and wide apart, were softly focused on me, rather than looking off into the distance or on something unknowable as they so often were. "Drunk already, Professor Aronnax?" He asked.

"Maybe so, Captain!" I replied, draining my glass and setting it upon the table. "And yourself? Surely it's inadvisable for the Captain to have too much?"

"My crew will manage my Nautilus," he said, composedly, and of course he was right. His self-assurance, apparent immediately upon meeting him, permeated the words. He finished his own glass and refilled it, then filled mine up halfway as though to illustrate the point.

"And what _of_ your crew?" Demanded Ned Land, a broad grin on his face, more at ease and sociable than he had been since coming on board.

"They'll have their share. I'm not a selfish man," Captain Nemo replied, graciously, though his eyes flashed. He wasn't as disturbed as he usually was by a suggestion that he did not care for his subordinates, or indeed anyone who might live under unjust rules, but his tone and expression made his position clear. Ned Land toasted him.

"You'll never hear me suggest it, Captain!" He took a hearty swig of spirit, then started another conversation to which gallant Conseil and even Captain Nemo joined. As for me, my thoughts turned inward again and I picked up my glass. I had certainly seen that flash in the Captain's expression before, and more certainly still, it always made me curious. Now, however, it aroused in me that longing of a few hours ago. It was a feeling beyond curiosity or inquiry, and now in my intoxication it was free to take hold of me. I wondered, as I pondered Captain Nemo's features (what a fine specimen he himself was!) if that had been his motivation in taking me to Atlantis. But that was absurd, surely. What good would it do him to cultivate my curiosity and admiration. Was it perhaps to act as a deterrent from escaping? The thought both intrigued and discomforted me, and I forced myself back to the present conversation, though my eyes remained on the Captain.

It was ten o'clock in the evening when the sugar kelp spirit finally ran out. "If you're hungry, there's dinner in your cabin," said Captain Nemo, and it occurred to me for the first time that evening that I hadn't had any dinner. However, he seemed to be speaking more to Ned Land and Conseil than to me and, in any case, I wasn't hungry at all.

"Excellent!" The Canadian put in, immediately getting to his feet and swaying slightly.

"With Master's permission, I shall return to my cabin," said Conseil, his eyes unfocused, though his tone never wavered in its formality. I couldn't help but laugh as I gave my reply.

"Please do, my friend!" Ned Land helped Conseil to his feet.

"By your leave, sirs," he saidm adopting an overly formal tone as well, and I'll let the reader decide how it came across. Captain Nemo and I bade them good night as they left the lounge, the Canadian whistling as he supported Conseil down the gainway. In the distance, a cabin door slammed shut.

"What's your pleasure, Captain?" I asked, turning in my seat to look at him properly. He cocked his head to the side.

"Nothing but your company, Professor Aronnax." I shivered, though of course the room was its usual comfortable twenty two degrees centigrade.

"By all means, Captain Nemo."

He regarded me for a moment with his deep eyes, then got to his feet and came to stand by the windows. I followed at once, appreciating for the first time the full effects of the spirit, and did my utmost to remain steady and keep my wits about me. I shivered again and pulled my jacket more closely around me as I looked out into the water, now pitch dark and seemingly empty. But for the lack of stars I might have been looking up at the night sky. "It's beautiful," I said, without thinking, and Captain Nemo made a noise of agreement. I found his response surprising, given that there was nothing to see and I'd felt rather foolish for saying it. I looked at Captain Nemo with raised eyebrows, wanting an explanation but not at all confident I'd get one. However, his eyes were intent as ever, and I wondered if maybe he really _had _seen something beautiful. For the third time that evening I knew that deep longing, more intensely than ever, as though it were a parasite gnawing at my organs. What did he see? What made him see the way he saw? What life and experience had written the story in front of me in a language I didn't speak? In my intoxication I felt almost brave enough to ask.

"What are you thinking, Professor?" A flush crept unexpectedly up my neck, and any nerve I might have had left me.

"Nothing, sir, except," I hesitated, my brain sluggish although my heart was lively and beating. "I don't think I've ever seen such total, impenetrable darkness as I have on nights aboard your marvelous Nautilus."

"Indeed, sir," replied Captain Nemo, rather more thoughtfully than I'd expected. "Of course, we're still above one hundred and fifty meters, so it could be darker."

"Right you are, Captain!" I agreed with a laugh. The corner of his mouth twitched. The three quarters of his face I could see were backlit by the electric lights overhead, and his eyes shone with soft clarity. It occurred to me that his comment might have been more allusion than observation, but an allusion to what, I had no idea, or even if my thought had any merit at all. Just then, Captain Nemo withdrew, and it was only as he moved away that I realized how close we'd been to each other. I put my hand on my chest as if to quiet my beating heart, to ease that maddening longing and thirst for information that only intensified as I watched Captain Nemo shut off all the electric lights. The darkness outside seemed to fill the room.

"Turn around, Professor."

And when I did, it was to behold another wondrous sight: a whole collection of bioluminescent ctenophores, all emitting a soft blue-green light, floating outside the Nautilus like glowing clouds. I cried out loud, then quickly put my other hand to my mouth, taking in these magnificent animals. I felt, rather than heard, Captain Nemo rejoin me.

"Beautiful," he said, simply.

"Did you know?" I asked, before I could stop myself. "I'd have thought them invisible, sir."

"A lucky guess based on data and intuition, Professor."

"Your 'lucky guesses' turn out, more often than not, to be fruitful," I replied, dryly, and, apparently unable to disagree, Captain Nemo made a soft noise of assent. "I should sketch them," I continued, and made to collect pen and paper from my stack of notes by the sofa, but Captain Nemo stopped me with a hand on my arm, which immediately erupted in gooseflesh.

"Wait a moment, Mr. Naturalist," the Captain said. "For now just observe them." He was staring at me so intensely I could see the luminous outlines of the ctenophores reflected in his dark eyes. Beyond that, though, his request seemed to speak to that inexplicable longing gnawing inside me. Was he trying to, without words, provide me with at least a morsel of the answers for which I was so desperate? I had no idea, and in that moment my brain chose, most unhelpfully, to desert me. I was floating in ocean water and spirits, surrounded by beautiful animals and alone with Captain Nemo.

"Your Nemo," Ned Land always said. "Your Nemo," whose hand was still on my arm as he showed me yet another wonder.

"For now… just observe them," I echoed in barely more than a whisper.

The Captain's expression was approving as he returned his gaze to the window. His hand slid down the back of my arm, and the skin there was once more covered in gooseflesh. Without thinking about it, I shifted closer so we were barely two decimeters apart. We stood in silence for… truly I couldn't have said if a minute or an hour passed us by, focused as I was on the sight before me and the remarkable individual beside me. _My_ Nemo, according to my companion, though he was as mysterious and elusive as ever. _My _Nemo, who had engaged me in such fascinating debates, who could equal and of course surpass me in all things. _My _Nemo, who had shown me underwater volcanoes and Atlantis in the middle of the night. Maybe, for those short stretches, Ned Land had a point.

My stomach contracted and I wondered for a horrifying moment if I'd drank too much. I placed my hand on the glass to steady myself, then immediately made to withdraw it so as not to leave handprints on the clear surface. However, my reflexes were subdued by spirit, and in that infinitesimal pause in which my body failed to react, Captain Nemo placed his hand on the back of mine. My mind immediately deserted me again and I stood frozen, the touch surging through me as though he'd struck me with one of his electric bullets, and at once all of my senses came alive. My shock evidently showed on my face, because Captain Nemo asked me, very quietly, "Are you all right, Professor Aronnax?" I turned to look him full in the face, and his eyes, glittering in the darkness, were focused entirely, utterly and completely, on me. The longing or curiosity or need or desire was suddenly boiling inside me. I felt exposed, seen through, but simultaneously powerful, strengthened. It was utter madness to do the thing I was so tempted to do, that my animalistic body unencumbered by my civilized mind was begging me to do. Had _this_ been Captain Nemo's intention, or merely another lucky guess? My Nemo… In this moment, _my _Nemo.

"What's your pleasure, Captain?" His palm contracted against the back of my hand so his fingers spread between mine, pressing both our hands harder into the glass.

"I'd like to show you, if you're amenable." I nodded rather shakily. Keeping my hand pressed to the glass, Captain Nemo lowered his face to mine.

I knew not the hour, our location, our depth, but for the first time I could not have cared less. His finely cut mouth was warm and heavy against mine, and again I might have been hit by one of his electric bullets for the sudden shock to the nerves I received. My body, still free of my utterly blank mind, flushed, and I felt hot all over as my heart and lungs worked furiously. Captain Nemo withdrew, though stayed just a few centimeters away, and in the pressing silence I could hear how shallowly he was breathing.

"Sir," I whispered, the desire in my tone taking me by surprise. Obviously I'd been in the same position with other people before, though admittedly it had been a while, and now…

"Professor Aronnax?" I shivered when he said my name. "Shall we continue?" My breath caught in my chest and my stomach contracted again, but I managed to reply.

"Yes."

Captain Nemo was upon me at once, and this time he took his hand off mine to cup the side of my face instead. I was struck by both the softness of his hand and the tenderness of the gesture. His dexterous fingers entangled themselves in my hair, and I turned so we were chest to chest. I reached out rather blindly into the space between us, wanting to touch some part of the man who was creating so much sensation and excitement in me. My hands found his chest, and I palmed it gently through his jacket and received a shiver (why, an actual shiver!) in return. I could feel his quickening breath and his heart beating, and it was enthralling. This individual, usually so cool and composed, unshakable and present, was after all still a man, and our fingers and lips and tongues allowed me a glimpse of that, but only with his permission. The knowledge of what he was giving me, that for another moment he could be _my_ Nemo, was more intoxicating than any spirit, and my fingers tensed against the fabric of his jacket and I kissed him almost greedily.

Captain Nemo responded immediately and in kind, wrapping his other arm around my waist and pulling me flush up against him. I gasped, and he swallowed it, and I felt as though I were being carried out to sea on a tidal wave of sensation. I'd never experienced anything like it before and I was desperate for more, desperate to satisfy my longing. As though he'd read my mind, the Captain pressed his thigh between my legs, and I had to stifle my cry. The action was so _forward_, but my entire body was screaming its approval.

"Are you all right, Professor Aronnax?" Captain Nemo whispered against my lips.

"Fine, sir," I replied on a shaky exhale. "Only…" For some reason I couldn't name my condition, though the Captain was obviously aware of it.

"Yes," he replied, ever so gently moving his thigh back and forth. The friction was like another electric bullet to my very being, and I had to bite down on my lower lip to stop myself making a noise. "We're in the same position, sir," Captain Nemo informed me, and this knowledge was perhaps more exciting to me than any discovery I'd ever made. Speechless, I acted instinctively, pulling him by the front of his jacket into a kiss. We stayed there, lips and hands and tongues working with an entirely new enthusiasm. I'd never have expected such passion from the Captain, but it was something else for me alone to see and experience.

'_My Nemo_,' I thought, gluttonously.

"Professor," the Captain managed, between kisses. "Shall we retire to my stateroom?" I gave an involuntary shudder that made his mouth twitch. I wondered what this would entail, what all we'd do, but then just as quickly decided there was no other option but to say,

"Yes, sir."

Captain Nemo kissed me one more time, then withdrew, leaving me gasping, and led me down the gainway to his stateroom. I heard the panels in the lounge sliding closed over the glass, our footsteps echoing and my own heart beating. For the first time it occurred to me that getting caught in this position together might be problematic, but I couldn't be bothered with consequences just now.

I'll let the reader decide where my thoughts were instead.

We entered Captain Nemo's quarters and were upon each other again, practically wrestling each other onto his bed, our arms and legs tangling together like grappling sea monsters. In no time Captain Nemo was on top of me, his hands working furiously at the buttons on my jacket and his mouth exploring eagerly at my throat. Fighting the sensations momentarily paralyzing me, my hands flew to his body, positively clawing at his arms, his back, his thighs on either side of mine. He thrust his hips against me, and I couldn't hold back my cry as the friction shocked my nerves. Captain Nemo exhaled sharply in my ear and forced my jacket and shirt open before sitting up, still straddling me. Before he could do anything else, I sat up too, shedding my clothes and biting my lip against another excited cry at yet more friction, and disrobed him from the waist up. I stayed still for a moment, taking him in, face and shoulders and chest and- oh we really were both in the same position… I flushed, unable to tear my eyes away from between his legs, but then he took my hand and placed it on his bare chest.

"_Oh_," I moaned, my hips thrusting up of their own accord.

"Professor Aronnax." I looked up, and his gaze held me utterly transfixed. His eyes were beautifully clear in the electric light, as though some layer that usually obscured them had been shed. I was getting closer, I knew, and my body seemed to reverberate with the knowledge.

"Captain Nemo," I said, softly. His heart was pounding, pumping his usually cool blood to the surface of his skin and no doubt elsewhere. His lips parted for a moment as though he were about to say something, but he just exhaled deeply and slowly, took hold of the sides of my face and kissed me once more on the lips.

"Shall we continue?"

"Yes." Again he was upon me and again we were little more than a profoundly aroused tangle of limbs trying desperately to rid each other of the rest of our clothing. Soon, but not nearly soon enough, we were both naked and lying side by side, staring at each other. My body felt so alive, so hungry, but again I couldn't name what I so obviously wanted. "What's your pleasure, Captain?" I asked in rather a choked voice. Captain Nemo replied with a kiss.

"Only _our_ pleasure, Professor Aronnax." I nodded, not sure what I was agreeing to but entirely willing all the same. Captain Nemo rolled over to retrieve something from his bedside table. I couldn't see what it was, but the next thing I knew he was on top of me between my legs, which had spread wantonly on their own. He reached down and took hold of both of us in an unimaginably intimate touch. I cried out, the sensation completely foreign to me, both because of whose hand it was and because it was coated in some kind of lubricant he'd no doubt isolated from some marine organism. However, the touch instantaneously appeased the longing and curiosity inside me, subdued it, and, I knew if we continued, would satisfy it. "Our pleasure, Professor Aronnax," said Captain Nemo, and I could tell from his tone that he was feeling the same as I was. I wrapped my arms around him.

"Yes, Captain Nemo," I said. '_My Nemo_,' I thought, and it began.

I moaned and shuddered and gasped as wave after wave of pleasure rose and crashed inside me. Every muscle in my body stiffened with pleasure so that my very toes curled as we kissed almost fiercely. There have been and will be those who try and wrangle words into poetry and prose to describe the sheer ecstasy of shared pleasure, but for me it's impossible to convey completely. The heat, the friction, the pressure, the fact that it was Captain Nemo sharing it with me…

"Oh!" I cried, suddenly, my fingernails digging into his upper back. I was going to- but I couldn't say! And yet-

"Together," Captain Nemo told me in a constricted voice. "Together!"

"_Oh!_"

And so it was. Pleasure erupted from both of us onto my chest, all over his hand as he saw us through it. Our bodies throbbed and convulsed, emptying between us, and then we were kissing, more passionately than we had all night, indeed more passionately than I could ever remember kissing anyone. How long we stayed there, lost in each other and sensation, I couldn't even begin to say, but eventually, Captain Nemo withdrew, his breathing still shallow, to retrieve a cloth to clean up the mess on my chest. However, before he could (and purely in the spirit of exploration) I dragged my first two fingers through the stream, brought them to my lips and sucked them clean.

Captain Nemo froze, and I saw his expression contort in arousal and his entire body shudder. I felt again the sense of power from before, and then my heart swelled in my chest as he returned to bed to kiss me deeply on the lips. "How does it taste, Professor?" He asked, in exactly the same tone he'd used when inquiring about the sugar kelp spirit.

"Like the ocean," I replied. Captain Nemo stared incredulously at me for a moment before we dissolved into laughter. I'd never heard him laugh like that before, and I don't think I'll ever forget the sound. It was quite some time before we could stop.

"Will you sleep here tonight?" Captain Nemo asked me, eventually, as he cleaned us up.

"If you wish it," I replied, though in truth I was grateful: tiredness and drunkenness would surely overtake me soon and, in any case, I had no desire to be separated from him just yet.

He nodded his approval, turned off the lights and climbed back into bed. We lay side by side, facing each other. '_My Nemo_,' I thought, drifting off the moment my eyes closed.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, there was a moment when I forgot what I was doing in Captain Nemo's stateroom, why I was undressed and why the man himself was lying beside me. Then of course I remembered. Sugar kelp, ctenophores, and… I flushed, and just then Captain Nemo shifted beside me. I felt guilty for disturbing him; he'd looked so uncharacteristically untroubled in his sleep. However, his expression was soft as he opened his eyes and surveyed me.

"Good morning," I whispered. His eyes had lost the clarity and openness of the night before, and it was as though my Nemo were slipping away in front of me. However, his mouth twitched and he wordlessly pulled me close, and I was comforted knowing I'd have him to myself a few moments longer. '_My Nemo._'

I'll let the reader decide how we spent the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> How was it? Okay I hope! Writing in first person is interesting, i don't think I'll be trying it again in a hurry. Anyway, keep up with me in the new year, I'll hopefully have another big X fic up, among other things.
> 
> I think of comments and kudos when I summon my kekkai, leave me some!


End file.
